THE TOWN OF LEWISBORO. 395 



of animate into inanimate objects, and vice versa ; all things " in heaven 

 and earth," he believes to be subject to this subtle power of metamor- 

 phosis. 



But, whatever be the precise operating cause of the respect he 

 pays to the imitative rolled stones, which he calls Shingaba-wossins, 

 and also by the general phrase of Muz-in-in-a-wum, or images, he is not 

 at liberty to pass them without hazarding something, in his opinion, of 

 his chance of success in life, or the fortune of the enterprise in hand. 

 The Indian is not precise in the matter of proportion, either in his draw- 

 ing or in his attempts at statuary. He seizes upon some minute and 

 characteristic trait, which is at once sufficient to denote the species, and 

 he is easily satisfied about the rest. Thus a simple cross, with a straight 

 line from shoulder to shoulder and a dot, or circle above, to serve for a 

 head, is the symbol of the human frame ; and without any adjunct of 

 feet or hands, it could not have been mistaken for anything else — cer- 

 tainly for any other object in the animal creation." 66 There can be but 

 little doubt this image was brought originally from the vicinity of Lake 

 Waccabuc or Wepuc, and set up on a level spot on the summit of one 

 of the highest hills of Candatowa, (a name that signifies " High Lands,") 

 . a site well chosen, thickly shaded with trees, and bearing luxuriant grass 

 and wild shrubbery and flowers, with here and there peeps or openings 

 of a wide expanse of country extending all around it, embracing the As- 

 proom mountain range north of Lake Wepuc, the hills stretching north- 

 east to Danbury, the dark green looking Stony Hills, to the west, and 

 the distant Dunderburg and Kittatenny Mountains, &c. It was, in fine, 

 one of those quiet solitary places which an Indian might be supposed to 

 have selected for his secret worship of some favorite Manito or Spirit. 

 The stone of which the principal part of the figure is composed resem- 

 bles that of which the ovens are composed upon one of the islands in 

 Lake Wepuc. The ovens themselves, too, have been fretted by the ac- 

 tion of water into their present shape. 



Indian graves have also been discovered upon a small wooded island 

 surrounded by a swamp on the land of the late Stephen Bouton, now 

 owned by his nephew, Joseph Webster, a short distance north-west of 

 the road leading from Ridgefield to Bedford. In the vicinity of Aaron 

 O. Wakeman's, quite close to the Connecticut line on the east, is a 

 curious aboriginal relic called the " Indian well," which is above six feet 

 deep and almost perfectly round, hollowed out from the solid granite 

 rock either by the action of water or the tools of the Aborigines ; in 

 this receptacle they probably cooked their food after a wholesale fashion 



a Schoolcroft's Oneota or the Red Rose of America, pp. 17, 18. 



